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Santorum decries killing of 16 Afghan civilians as 'very tragic'

Rick Santorum called a shooting rampage in Afghanistan over the weekend that resulted in the death of 16 Afghans "very tragic."

"The person that was involved obviously has to be brought to justice and brought to justice quickly," Santorum said in Ocean Springs, Miss., according to CNN on Monday.

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Santorum's comments are in response to an Army staff sergeant in Kandahar province leaving his base and killing 16 Afghan civilians, nine of which were children.

Santorum also said the shooting was "obviously horrific" and that there would need to be a review of the shooting to see if there was some kind of pattern.

"It's a very tragic situation but, you know, someone obviously lost it and you've got to obviously do the reviews to find out what happened … whether there was a pattern here," Santorum added. "All those things are going to have to be reviewed, and they should be."

Over the weekend, President Obama said he was "deeply saddened" when he got news of the attack in Kadahar province. Obama said the shooting did not "represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan."